1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to memory controllers and, more particularly, to a mechanism for controlling memory accesses to regulate power consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical computer systems are designed to maximize the number of memory accesses that are executed in a particular amount of time. Memory power is a significant component of the total power consumption in modern computer systems. There is typically a tradeoff between system performance and memory power consumption. Since memory power is variable depending on the demands of the applications running on the computer, power and cooling are usually supplied to match the full range of memory power demands. Providing relatively large amounts of power to memory and performing the corresponding cooling operations may improve system performance, but at the same time may result in a poor tradeoff between performance and power.